History Demolished, The Train Depots of Stuart and Martin County, SLR/IRL

The Hobe Sound Depot with engine ca. early part of 1900s, photo courtesy of Stuart Heritage.

I was recently reminded of train depots while reading a front page “Stuart News” article showing an artist painting a mural of the old Hobe Sound Train Depot….All Aboard Florida being rammed down our throats has the Treasure Coast very unhappy about “trains…” yet our area has a history of trains that we may know a bit better if the rail service and the government hadn’t demolished most of the depots that once peppered the Indian River Lagoon Region from Volusia to Palm Beach counties.

As the daughter of a historian, I was fortunate to hear many stories during my youth that if nothing else “made me think.” One of these stories was about how lonely it was to be pioneer here in Stuart’s early days. My mother would say….

“Jacqui, for the people, for the women especially, this was a very lonely place.”

The daily train used to alleviate that loneliness and give the people a place to meet, gossip, and share. Kind of like today’s Facebook. As my mother Sandra Thurlow notes in her book, “Stuart on the St Lucie,” “Town life centered around the arrivals and departures of passenger trains that also brought the mail.”

From my reading it sounds as if most of the construction and the use of depots and lesser “flag stops,” (a flag was raised if they needed the conductor to stop?)….was between 1894 and 1935. The Hurricanes of 1926 and 1928 coupled with the real estate crash of 1926 was a big part of the railroads’ demise as was the fact that wholesale fishing industries waned from unwise over-fishing, and pineapples had to start competing with Cuba. So basically, in about one generation, the railroads depots and the railroad of Henry Flagler along the Lagoon had seen their “best days.”

In the 1960s and before, the aging, remaining, cute-little, aging stations were demolished by order of F.E.C. Railway officials. As my mother writes about the Stuart Depot: “The depot that was once the center of the community’s activities was demolished without fanfare during the 1960s.”

And so “it goes,” and “so it went”….. THERE GOES THE TRAIN!

The passenger train is gone, along with the depots….today we have too much car traffic, roads are everywhere, All Abroad Florida threats purport a bleak future, Florida’s population is expanding, Panama Canal freight is coming…

Well, at least we have Facebook or we can stay home and text…..

Hmmmmm?

What will the future bring? 🙂

Walton Flag Stop, with people happy to see each other and get the mail. Photo. Photo courtesy of Reginald Waters Rice and Sandra Thurlow’s book “Historic Jensen and Eden on Florida’s Indian River.”

9 thoughts on “History Demolished, The Train Depots of Stuart and Martin County, SLR/IRL”

Great post, stay at home and text, indeed! I predict AAF will last long enough for the developers to make beaucoup bucks on their projects in the big cities – and the passenger trains will disappear without much fanfare, except here.

I hope I live long enough to see that happen and the FEC engineer that clearly delights in honking his horn at 2:30 in the morning retired. Then we can have Rails to Trails project like Hi Line in NYC and the Beltline in Atlanta!

We are lucky here in Vero Beach! In 1984, the Indian River County Historical Society sought its first historic preservation project with the purchase of our abandoned 1903 Vero Beach Railroad Station. It was the first building in Indian River County to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It’s home to the historical society and its a charming reminder of our past!

A few weeks ago I read in the paper they are going to spend 20 million dollars to dredge the channel at the mouth of Turkey Creek . Just for the heck of it I spread out 8 buckets of sand where they said they would dredge. Yesterday as I was takeing my boat to the ramp I saw lots and lots of bubbles everywhere I put sand and shell. With the strong current I know whats going to happen. H2O2 is going to react violently with thousands of tons of muck and it will all wash out the channel saveing taxpayers 20 million.

Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch That is awesome for Jupiter and Fort Pierce!
Like · Reply · 1 · July 28 at 7:37pm · Edited

Jo Neeson The old Jensen station is still in one piece on Pitchfords property
Unlike · Reply · 2 · July 28 at 9:21am

Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch really Jo Neeson we must restore it
Like · Reply · 1 · July 28 at 9:33am

Jo Neeson Its in a mess of vines but it appears to be intact
Unlike · Reply · 3 · July 28 at 9:33am

Haydee Ullfig Train stations, no matter in what country, were the places to congregate, see who’s leaving, who’s coming, and spend time with your neighbors. I remember taking a train from Buenos Aires out to the countryside in Argentina. My visual memories are intact….The people, the horses on hitching posts, the laundry hanging on the lines, the flower pots on the windows, the chickens running around. Almost all of them are also abandoned and a few are restored.
Unlike · Reply · 3 · July 28 at 9:54am

Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch Haydee Ullfig that is a wonderful description. Buenos Aires must have been magical at that time. I wonder if Ed remembers????” smile emoticon
Like · Reply · July 28 at 10:16am · Edited

Haydee Ullfig I was 8 or 9 years old. Ed was too little and I don’t think he had family out in the country to visit.
Unlike · Reply · 1 · July 28 at 10:41am

Haydee Ullfig An abandoned train station in Argentina. I think they should all be museums.
Haydee Ullfig’s photo.
Unlike · Reply · 2 · July 28 at 10:44am

Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch Beautiful
Like · Reply · July 28 at 1:45pm

Nick Barker Wow, been there, don’t remember seeing anything, but of course, at the time, was never looking for anything!
Unlike · Reply · 1 · July 28 at 10:33pm